Page 81 of Still Afraid

“Aaron?”

He swore. “Chloe, I told you not to ask.”

She sank back in the seat, crushed by the truth that her brother had kidnapped her.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Josh collapsed in the grass at the end of the block. Poirot had broken from his leash and chased the truck, but Josh hadn’t been able to keep up. So now, not only had he lost Chloe, he’d lost Poirot too.

Josh didn’t know if he couldn’t catch his breath for running or devastation of letting Chloe get taken from right next to him.

Someone ran up beside Josh and put his hand on his back. “Josh?” Gabe stood beside him. “The entire city of Knoxville is being mobilized. We’ll find her.”

“You saw.”

“I saw you running. Where’s Poirot?”

“He followed.”

Gabe tapped his shoulder and pointed down the street.

A serious-looking Poirot was trotting back. He must have lost the scent.

“Come here, boy.”

Gabe ran into the intersection to make sure Poirot made it across safely. The dog ran straight to Josh and licked his face.

“We’ll find her. We have to.” Josh petted the dog, then stood.

“Come on, let’s head back and regroup.”

Josh nodded and told Poirot to come.

They walked back to the school. The fire department had shown up, and people milled about outside.

“I’m guessing whoever grabbed Chloe pulled the fire alarm.”

Gabe nodded. “That’s exactly my thought. One more thing to add to their list of charges.”

“I can’t believe I let her get grabbed from right beside me.”

“Don’t. You can’t beat yourself up for this. The crowd was the perfect opportunity.”

“What do we do?”

“First, pray—”

“Already doing that.”

“Same. Next, we divide and conquer. I’ll do my job and work with the cops. I’ll get the description of the vehicle out and work with them to talk to the crowd and figure out what people saw. You call Mom and Dad.”

“Me? Your dad’s gonna kill me.”

Gabe put his hand on Josh’s shoulder. “No, he won’t. But I need you to fill them in. Every minute counts and I need to focus my energy on getting the department mobilized.”

Josh nodded. He could feel his mind spinning. Lord, steady me. If You don’t, I’m not going to be able to find Chloe. Please keep her safe.

Chloe stared at her brother, who had finally lowered the bandana from his nose. How had he fallen so far to put them in the place they were now?